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Hey everyone, it's Corinne. And if you're loving blank, you should check out the Crime House Original True Crime Stories each episode of True Crime Stories explores the story of an infamous solved or unsolved murder. From crimes of passion to high profile assassinations, serial killers and money motivated murders. Host Carter Roy covers it all. But what sets Murder True Crime Stories apart is the unique approach to these stories. Not just covering the evidence, but highlighting the victims, their lives, what led to their deaths, and if they ever got justice. Some of the names you'll recognize Chandra Levy, Lacey Peterson, the Black Dahlia, and others you may not Betsy Aartsma, David Blakely, Theora Hicks. But every episode is full of shocking twists, gripping true crime storytelling and unbelievable moments. Search True Crime Stories and follow now wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Tuesday and now enjoy the special preview of Murder True Crime the Burger Chef Murders.
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Besides the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, the Burger chef in Speedway, Indiana had another reason to schedule four people for the late shift that Friday night. On November 17, 1978, CBS was broadcasting the Star Wars Holiday Special nationwide. As part of a licensing deal, Burger Chef was offering the Star Wars Fun Meal. The special aired from 8pm to 10pm that left just one hour for Star wars fans excited by the special to get their Fun meals before Burger chef closed at 11. After that, the four young employees on the closing shift planned to spend the next hour or so cleaning the kitchen and getting the restaurant ready to reopen the next morning. As I mentioned, 16 year old Daniel Davis wasn't supposed to be one of those four. According to FBI files, another employee was originally scheduled to close, but this person had a history of performance issues and his termination had already been finalized. Investigators redacted the employee's name and age before his files were released. So all we know about him is that he was a white male and he hadn't been notified yet that he was fired. Friday night was set to be his last shift, but he never showed up. That's why at 9:45pm, Daniel called home and asked for permission to work until midnight. His team needed the help and Daniel wanted the extra hours so he could earn money to buy Christmas presents. Daniel's parents said he could stay and that they'd wait up to make sure he got home safely. Daniel told them not to worry about waiting up for him. Fifteen minutes later at 10pm, Jane's boyfriend stopped by to check on her. Per the FBI's files, her boyfriend was extremely protective and liked to stop by every once in a while to make sure she was okay. So that night he pulled his car around to the drive through window and Jane told him that everything was fine. Her boyfriend drove off reassured that Jane was safe. That may have been because he saw that 16 year old mark Flemons was also working. Mark stood over 6ft tall and studied karate. After a recent murder at a fast food restaurant in Oklahoma, Mark had told Jane that he'd protect her if anything bad ever happened at Burger Chef. Jane knew that burger joints open late were a popular target for robbers. She'd even rehearsed a plan with her parents in case her restaurant became a target. As she told them, every time the subject came up, she wouldn't try to be a hero. She'd just give the robber whatever they wanted in order to protect herself and her team. It was a smart plan. But whoever entered the Burger Chef between its closing at 11 and midnight wasn't your typical fast food robbery. Meanwhile, a few blocks away, another Burger Chef employee had no idea his co workers were in mortal danger. Around midnight, 17 year old Brian Cring took his date and co worker 17 year old ginger Haggard back to her parents house. After dropping Ginger off, Brian drove to Burger Chef. Mark had covered Ginger shift that night so she could keep her date. Brian planned to show his appreciation by helping Mark clean up after closing. Brian parked in the back lot near the rear entrance. He spotted Daniel's car, a 1973 Ford Pinto parked nearby. He noticed all the lights were on inside the restaurant. He figured his friends were still cleaning and headed in to join them. Almost immediately Brian knew something was wrong. The back door was usually bolted shut, but tonight it was a jar. And when he went inside he saw the safe was open and the cash register drawers were pulled out. With all the money missing, Brian called his manager to ask what to do. The boss told him to call the police. That's when someone else showed up. The unidentified white male employee who had called out claiming car trouble. He drove up in the van that had supposedly broken down earlier that night for convenience. I'll call this employee X. Brian found X's behavior strange. Why would someone who had just claimed he couldn't get to work show up at the restaurant uninvited after it had already closed? As soon as Brian mentioned he'd called the police, X took off. He was long gone by the time the cops showed up a few minutes later. The cops missed their chance to talk to X that night. But they did notice a few suspicious pieces of evidence when they arrived. Ruth's jacket was tossed in the Floor like she dropped it and never picked it up. Jane's jacket was also found inside. Both of their purses were still in the restaurant. Everything seemed like it happened in a rush. About $100 in coins had been left in the registers, as if the robbers left too quickly to bother carrying change. A few of the responding officers assumed that the employees had taken the money themselves and gone out together. Although nobody could explain why four Stellar employees would hatch such a half hearted robbery plan then take off without the girls purses. So operating on the assumption that something was wrong, the officers stayed up all night working the scene. One of those officers was Lieutenant William Crafton. He was a husky man with big sideburns and known as one of the department's top investigators. He worried that the local community would fall apart if something happened to these kids. He began marshaling his resources, preparing for a full scale search. But before they could tear the town apart looking for the missing Burger Chef crew, one more thing had to happen. Their parents had to be notified. Around 1am Police placed four different calls to four shocked families who had no idea if their children were alive or dead. Then at 4:30am the case took a dark turn. Jane's abandoned car was discovered a couple of blocks from the Speedway police station. There was no sign of Jane or her car keys. Police theorized the robbers had forced Jane to drive them somewhere, then abandoned her car and gotten into a different vehicle. Around 11:00am on Saturday, November 18, 1978, 11 hours after the victims were first discovered missing, the FBI was brought onto the case. But it was too late for them to find any new forensic evidence. When the Speedway police had arrived at the Burger Chef the night before, they didn't dust for fingerprints, call in crime scene investigation technicians, or even take photographs of the scene. Then the next morning, the cops let employees clean the crime scene and open the restaurant. While police protocol has come a long way since then, even in 1978, this was not proper protocol. Later, the officers handling the case returned to the restaurant and set the crime scene back up as best they could and took photos. They didn't immediately tell the lead investigators that the pictures they handed in were taken after the crime scene had been dismantled, cleaned and restaged from memory. Officer Buddy Elwanger, who worked on the case, would later admit, quote, we screwed it up from the beginning. By the time the FBI arrived, the town was in an all out panic. Search parties fanned out on foot, helicopters soared overhead. Everyone hoped they were still looking for kidnappers and living victims and not dead bodies. Those hopes were soon dashed. Saturday dragged on without any sightings. Then On Sunday afternoon, November 19, some hikers made a horrific discovery in the woods about a half hour's drive south from the restaurant. They saw Ruth's and Daniel's bodies lying near a trail and called the police. When detectives arrived, they soon located Jane and Mark's bodies too. The investigators were able to determine that 17 year old Ruth and 16 year old Daniel were shot with a.38 caliber handgun. Their bodies were found close together and the bullets that killed them came from the same gun about 30 or 40 yards away. 20 year old Jane had been stabbed to death with a hunting knife so violently that the four and a half inch blade broke off and was left in her body. The knife's handle was never found. Mark came the closest to escaping. He was the tallest of the group. Stride length alone would have made him the fastest runner, but about 150ft from Jane's body, he died of asphyxiation. Yet there was no sign he was strangled, although there was evidence he'd been severely beaten. The police theorized that Mark managed to get free and ran into the dark woods where he collided with a tree. Then they thought he fell backwards, likely unconscious and choked to death on his own blood from the injuries he sustained from the collision. Mark's body became another piece of perplexing evidence in a case that seemed to make no sense. Why would a small time crook murder four people? How did the robber or robbers force four strong smart young people to leave the restaurant with them seemingly without a struggle? And where was the killer? Now, if you like this episode, please search for Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts and please follow so you get new episodes every Tuesday.
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Thank you so much for listening to catch the rest of this episode and so much more. Don't forget to search and follow True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts.